The Demons Inside Us
by J-Mith
Summary: Is Ares playing tricks again and will he win the affection of the one he claims to love. What will Gabrielle have to say about the whole situation. The lives of Gabrielle's Amazon tribe and the lives of those closest to Xena will fall into her hands, her choices will decide their fates, will she be able to fight the demons she has inside of her?
1. Chapter 1

_**The Demons Inside Us**_

**This is my first Xena Fanfiction, I've only just watched the entire series all the way through! So please if there are any story issues that don't seem right to you let me know (or if I recall an event in the TV show incorrectly, pop us a PM). The way the show was written and the show in general inspired me to write this so here we go. **

**The story is set just after the events of Illusia. Everything happened as it did in the episode.**

**Disclaimer. The Xena Warrior Princess series and its characters are all copyrighted property of MCA/universal**

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The cold breeze flowed through the Warrior Princesses jet black hair as she scouted the area around the camp she and Gabrielle had stayed at the previous night. It had been the first night since the death of her beloved son that she had slept the whole night through. Although she had settled things with Gabrielle the death of her son still weighed heavily on her shoulders, she missed him dearly and the thought of not seeing him in her current lifetime was torture beyond believe. The breeze that had previously been slow picked up and a chill ran down her spine, "Ares" she said cooly.

"The one and only my love" he replied in his arrogant tone before showing himself to his beautiful chosen.

"If I had a dinar for every time I asked you what you wanted you'd be out of business." she stated with the typical Xena smirk. Ares always got under her skin, she didn't know if it was feelings that she tried to bury deep inside her or if it was the fact that once he had turned her and the possibility that he could do it once again shook her to the core.

"Well it's a good job that that isn't the case then isn't it." he replied, however when he started talking again his grin was lost and a stern and serious look appeared on his face "I've come to tell you something Xena." The confusion on the Warrior Princesses face was obvious, he'd tried many approaches on trying to get her back none of which so far had succeeded. She could hear the stir of Gabrielle awakening in the distance, she'd soon be wondering where Xena was.

"I'm listening, but make it quick!"

"I've come to apologise." he stated stepping forward. He was now so close to Xena that she could feel his breath of her lips, she could smell the war lingering on him and most endearing of all she could feel his heart beat quicken alike her own. Realising she was beginning to feel like a teenage girl that had a crush, she began to laugh.

"An apology?! By the Gods Ares you expect me to accept an apology from you and believe it! I'm not as goat crazy as you think I am! " Ares turned his back, she could sense his anger and his irritation.

"You never take me seriously Xena! Never! I came here to apologise and give you my respects. The death of your son, I can tell has been extremely hard on you and me trying to take advantage didn't help you in any way. I need you Xena. I can't explain why I'm so drawn to you."

"You came here to say that?"

"Well yeah"

"You really are going soft aren't you Ares. What would the followers of Ares God of War think of this little speech exactly? I personally think you'd be the laughing stock of Greece."

"I'm past that Xena. I don't care what others think as long as I have you by my side. I want you to be my wife, to be the mother of my children and to be the one that I say I love to day after day." His hand was now caressing her cheek, running smoothly across her silky skin, her sparkling ocean blue eyes closed at the sensation flowing through her body.

"Ares" she moaned before opening them again. Her movement was as quick as a flash at the sight of Gabrielle moving closer towards them. Xena had opened the distance between the two and composed herself.

"Xena, what's going on?" Gabrielle asked confused by the close proximity that the God and her best friend had been in.

"Gabrielle! How lovely to see you" said Ares, the annoyance was clear through the way he said her name. 'she always seems to interrupt us' he thought 'just when I seem to be getting somewhere there she is'.

"Why are you here Ares? If Xena hasn't said it a thousand times, she's just not interested!"

"Anybody else would think that you were jealous Gabby!" The use of her nickname coming from his lips was disturbing to say the least. "But I shall be on my way. Xena?" she had been standing quiet for the last few seconds, still trying to get over the loss of control that had just happened. She looked into his eyes and was surprised to see what was there, it was pain. The God of War was actually in pain.

"Xena, I meant what I said. I _can_ change, truly I can." In a flash of blue light he was gone leaving the two friends reeling in disbelief. Gabrielle was confused about the closeness that she had just sensed, she knew that Ares and Xena had something, what that something was she didn't know, she didn't even think that Xena knew what it was. Xena was however, in a state of astonishment, was the God of War yet again trying to put on another act in order to get her to join his crazed world. She would have come to that conclusion straight away had she not looked into those brown depths of his. His eyes spoke words that she had never thought possible from the man she despised yet yearned. She saw the pain that was there, pain that she knew she had caused over the many years they had been in contact. But pain that he had only brought on himself, teasing her with his games and his tricks.

"Xena?" she heard through her deep thoughts. "Xena, what's happened?" she hadn't known she was looking at the ground for when she looked up Gabrielle was within the same distance Ares had just been. She composed herself shifting her feet slightly to form a more confident stance.

"Nothing Gabrielle, just Ares trying to get to me" Xena replied, however it wasn't convincing enough as her friend kept prying.

"It didn't look like nothing when he had his hands on you." It sounded harsher than she intended, however it did bring Xena's full attention to her.

"He didn't have his hands on me Gabrielle you must have been mistaken. He was just talking about the same god like crap he normally talks about. Have my children, rule the world with me, blah blah blah. You know what he's like." by the time Xena had finished her poor explanation she and Gabrielle were back to the camp. "We need to pack up, we've got a long journey to Amphipolis ahead of us. I was hoping we'd get there before night."

"I know what your trying to do Xena and it's not going to work! We've got the whole journey to talk about this." With that Gabrielle began collecting the bed rolls and Xena put out the fire. The journey ahead she knew was going to be long and tiresome and with the added Gabrielle interrogation she knew it was going to be one to forget.

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_**So you made it through it! What did you think? Thanks for reading and please leave a review your comments do help improving writing and shaping the story. Thanks again :)**_


	2. Chapter 2

**The Demons Inside of Us – Chapter 2**

_**Thank you to 'existence1' for the very first review! I'm glad you liked the first chapter and hope you enjoy this one just as much. Thanks as well to all those that have also read this story so far! :) **_

******Disclaimer. The Xena Warrior Princess series and its characters are all copyrighted property of MCA/universal**

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The sun was up high in the sky and the birds were chirping much to Gabrielle's delight and Xena's annoyance. The road they were travelling on was empty of travellers as far as the eye could see. Trees were situated at both sides of the road so the two women had some form of shield from the sun but the Warrior Princesses awareness was on high alert as to any impending attacks coming from behind the tree lines. The journey so far had gone as expected. Gabrielle had bombarded Xena with question after question after question, repeating them over and over in order to get a satisfying response. Xena had always been able to put up with the considerably persistent bard, however, she was beginning to think that she could no longer keep hold of her temper if the bard persisted any longer. Xena's mind drifted back off to the God of War. It was always him that she thought of to control her temper. Although some would think it would have the opposite effect (in making her actually lose her temper), to her, thinking of the God of War made her think of what she could be become if she didn't keep that temper in the locked cage she had learnt to mentally form. Thinking of the God of War made her also remember back to what he had had said to her earlier that morning '_I don't care what others think as long as I have you by my side. I want you to be my wife, to be the mother of my children and to be the one that I say I love to day after day.' _she had no doubt in her mind that the God of War did actually love her in his twisted way, but the declaration that he didn't care about what his followers thought were hard to believe. The God of War's ego was nearly a life of it's own it was that big , among other things she thought. She refrained herself from chuckling at that last thought. But seriously, would the God of War be willing to lose all of his followers for one woman that he 'thought' he loved? At that moment Xena was pulled back from her thoughts by the impact of Gabrielle's staff softly hitting her on the arm.

"Your not listing to me are you?" Gabrielle said with an irritated tone.

"I am Gabrielle and for the last time nothing is happening between me and Ares!" Xena had now stopped and had gained a very angry expression on her face, that temper trapped in the cage was roaring to break free.

"Actually Xena I was just asking how much further it was to Amphipolis but if your going to react like that I'll not bother speaking for the rest of the journey."

"Well that would suit me fine seen as you haven't stopped talking since this morning! You know I thought you'd get the message by me taking no notice but nooo Gabrielle does what Gabrielle does best to talk!" Xena replied quickly.

"FINE!" Gabrielle shouted in response.

"fine!" Xena bounced back.

The journey for next three hours was awkward to say least, neither of the women had said a word. Both women had seen the other glance over in an attempted approach to say something but nothing materialised until Xena finally gave in. She pulled Argo to a holt and tied her to a nearby tree. Gabrielle had stopped at the same time wondering what was happening. She readied her staff for an impending attack.

"What direction are they about to come from Xena? Ive got your back!" Xena quickly turned around and smiled.

"Thanks Gabrielle but you can get my back when there is some real danger. Look we need to talk about earlier, about me snapping at you, I'm sorry." Xena's facial expression was now that of a woman pleading for forgiveness. She'd only ever shown that expression to two people, Xena's mother and Gabrielle. She had seen it many times, when Xena was asking for forgiveness in Illusia, when Xena had accused her of not finishing Hope off (the first time) and many other times. "Ares just always seems to put me in a bad mood! I'm not trying to make excuses I'm just saying that I had a lot on my mind and you asking me all those questions just made me lose it."

"Well maybe if you talked about it with me it wouldn't linger on your mind as much." Gabrielle placed her hands of both of Xena's shoulders "come on Xena after all we've been through you can tell me. What happened between you and Ares?"

Xena removed Gabrielle's hands from her shoulders gently and cupped them in her own.

"It's nothing for you to worry about, I'm just reading into what he said too much." Xena smirked at Gabrielle's raising of the eyebrow. She certainly wasn't going to let this go. Xena had to tell her something! "Look he said the same old lines that he loved me and that he'd change. The thing that threw me was the look in his eyes when he was saying it to me. But like I said I'm reading into it too much, he's the same old snakey God he's always been. Happy now?"

"Do you love _him_?" Gabrielle asked "And give me a straight answer I dont want you avoiding the question."

"Look Gabrielle you've got to understand he's been in my life for a long time now, a lot of my skills as a warrior is thanks to him." Xena was interrupted by Gabrielle "I don't want to know what he's taught you and how long you've known him, I want to know how you feel about him!" Xena let out a deep breath, there was no chance she could deceive this girl, Gabrielle knew her too well!

"Then I guess... I'll have to say that I don't know. I don't know how I feel about him. All I know is that whenever I see him he gives me goosebumps and although this may sound strange, whenever he's around me I get a warm feeling inside me and my heart starts pounding. Is that love? Or is it me reacting to a nearby danger?" Xena looked down at the floor removed her hands from Gabrielle's and rubbed the back of her neck. The stress of the whole situation was definitely taking its toll on her, every muscle in her body felt tense and she had a pounding headache.

"Thank you" Gabrielle said with a smile.

"For what?" Xena replied confused and looked back up to see Gabrielle's beaming infectious smile.

"For opening up to me and answering truthfully. It's very rare that you open up, there must be something in the water." They both chuckled and had a quick loving hug before Xena retrieved Argos reins from the tree and set off walking along the road.

"I can't keep many things from you can I?" Xena asked with a chuckle

"Nope and you never will, your stuck with me!." Gabrielle replied.

"I sure am! Come on. Lets get to Amphipolis, all this talking has made me hungry!"

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_**Thanks for reading again guys! It's extremely appreciated! I'm thinking about bringing another God into the mix, but not too sure on names! I was thinking Terrocles (as in God of Terror) what do you think? If you could pop us a review I'd very much appreciate it! :) **_


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